There are other methods that don't rely on fuels such as concentrating solar heating, passive solar heating, solar evacuated tube collectors, wind powered electric heaters or low grade geothermal.
@@vitordelima absolutely. Some of which I am working on for myself. This year has been a huge shock to millions of people. They need cost effective heat without a large or difficult learning curve right now.
I ran my Peugeot 306 for a number of years on vegoil. I included a heated fuel filter and heat exchanger to preheat the vegoil, also looped the injector return. Two, 3 port valves were used to select the fuel source and return route. So start on diesel until the engine hit over 70 degrees, then swop to vegoil. Swop back to diesel a few miles before turning off. I ran the vehicle for over 100,000 miles on this setup. Bosch injector pumps were always successful for vegoil but lucks CAV easy to break. The VW PD was also meant to be good. One important thing with waste vegoil on cars, apart from filtering the crud, is removal of water from it, normally this was done by allowing several weeks for it to settle, so you end up with oil on top of the water. To check water content, just put it into a hot frying pan and check for spitting. Thanks for your excellent channel, it provides me with a lot of entertainment.
There is also a paraffin lamp oil and I believe that is a pretty standard name/label around the globe. And that is the product that Rob is referring to. Apparently it is more refined than kerosene and has less smell when burned, which makes it better for lamps.
@@justinw1765 In North America lamp oil is labelled "lamp oil" but we know it's kerosene. Nothing is labelled "paraffin" except candle wax or the wax used in food canning.
Hi Robert. Have been using one of these to heat my work shop for the last 4 years burning anything from agricultural diesels, domestic oil, and vegetable oil mixture, still working well, 23.2 degrees in here as I type. Cheers.
A few years ago I mounted one of the heater units along with a 5L fuel tank to a sheet of plywood in the shape of my companionway hatchboards. In the shoulder seasons, I use it instead of the hatchboards so that I've got a simple heating setup that takes no room in the summer - just put it in storage. It works brilliantly, and I run it primarily off biodiesel or 50:50 gasoline/waste cooking oil. I've also sourced contaminated diesel (normally mixed with water) that I'm able to clean up and run. I've experimented with a ton of other waste streams, and have had to clean mine a couple times over the years. Once I'd coked the swirling mixer so badly I couldn't clean it, and was happy to discover replacement burn chambers with gaskets are like $20. I bought a bunch of them, and now if they're too dirty to be saved, don't waste any time. I've saved probably thousands of dollars of fuel at this point. These things are fantastic!
Rob .. I have a friend who hooked up the exhaust and ran it through some pipes before exiting his room .. which allowed him to recover some of the exhaust heat .. making it even more efficient.
Im loving same diesel heater -40C and keeps my 12×24foot shop 15C on lowest setting. Amazing heater but I do find lots of heat is wasted through the exhaust could definitely do heat recovery radiator with the exhaust system
I might have mentioned this before but when I was stationed in Germany in the RAF around 1979 ish I used to refuel a similar device, a bus heater, separate burn chamber and separate airflow going into the building and run off the mains electric. If memory serves me right a Jerry cans worth of diesel would run it all day.
Hi Rob I use to run my Massey Ferguson 35 (1958) on 50/50 used veg oil and green diesel, she was only used in the summer for topping and hauling in turf. She run great, I rebuilt the top side a few years ago. I was delighted to find the head and all was very clean, I cant get the used veg oil anymore as the bloke sells it, but I buy a few litres now and then and put it in my jeep, wife's jeep and MF35. Both jeeps passed the N.C.T. test engines running clean. I love your show, keep up the great work, God bless you.
Every cafe is going to be deluged with requests for their used cooking oil now. It'll be 50p a litre by Feb ! 🙂 Please consider doing the video on how the heater looks inside after a while as most people are hanging out to see that. I've seen them run on used untreated motor oil and of course they soot up big time. Also I have heard that if you give them a good 15 minute blast on the highest setting before shutting them down that will make a huge difference in the anount of maintenance required.
Hi Robert, I don't recommend using an adapter without having a battery backup. There is a mandatory cooldown cycle. If the power goes out during a running cycle, it could damage the unit. Cheers from Ottawa.
Dead right I run mine in my work shed I have a 12v deep cycle battery and a trickle charger. The battery is there for two reasons supply the start up current needed for the glow plug. Once it starts the trickle charger (like the alternator in a car) recharges the battery and supplies the running current for the fan, etc The second and more important reason for this simple power supply is so that if there were an outage, the battery will keep things going for hours. Then you can properly shut it off and cool it down
@@melissasmess2773 Hundreds of videos of people who used these things, and all say the same thing. The fan is necessary for the cooldown cycle. I own 5 of these heaters. 2 failed after a few months. I didn't know they were easy to fix, so I just bought replacement units. At least I have a lot of spare parts. The oldest one I have is the one that works best.
A well constructed system could easily cook down garbage plastic into jet fuel which then powers the heating to cook down the plastic. Only a tiny flame needed a it is functionally simmering...not even. Happy Solstice season!
Its a good idea Rob. But recently I've learnt that burners with nozzles and fuel pump (assuming there is one in your fancy unit for atomizing purposes) specified for diesel usage can wear our fairly quickly when used with such novel fuels. These days in India, some variants of LDO (Light Oil Diesel) are being made with similar mixing recipes and as such industrial diesel burners, even with good quality fuel pump, face pump failure issues. So burner manufacturers have now started using relatively tougher fuel pumps (for instance 1/2 HP 100 litres per minutes capacity) for using these mixed fuels. Just thought if your heater utilizes a fuel pump, this issue may needs addressing suitably. As always, your videos are great! Thanks.
Use a bosh injector pump from an old rover diesel, filter the used veg oil with £5 ebay filters, no parafin needed. Used to run it in my old rover 400.
I am running one of these currently in my van to keep my bowling balls warm. And so I feel comfortable when it's time to drive home from work. Less than $0.50 a day and I can keep them stored in there and not have to take them in the house every day. I bowl nearly every day of the week in 3 different towns. The cost to operate the heater will become a fraction of that when I insulate the van. Currently it's all sheet metal.
Price is likely to drop back in the spring/summer months. Just at the moment, fear of heating costs and production problems in China has left a lot of empty shelves. I reckon a fair proportion of sold units will end up on the secondhand market next year. Won't bother me and my woodstoves ;
Basically ripping people off. Here in Australia where its coming into summer they are freely available at the previous price . They just know that everyone is looking to keep their heating costs down in the UK so are making hay before the sun shines again. If it wasn't for the outrageous costs of freight between Australia and the UK you could buy them easily from here. I can buy a book on EBay UK for 5 quid and pay twenty five in postage !
Apparently Trading Standards have impounded several hundred of these CDH at Felixstowe docks, I'm lead to believe the problem is with the Chinglish instructions rather than the heaters themselves ?
I've successfully run an old mercedes on used veg oil, the single easiest way to clean it is to let gravity do all the work, it's called settling. Over time all the crud sinks to the bottom simply pull the clearer oil off at the top. A heater like this might run on straight used veg oil so possibly no need for any filtering or additives like paraffin etc ?
Check out "dieselpumpUK" for a look inside the ruined fuel pump from a 606 that's been run on non refined cooking oil, most diesel engines will run on it but they do not last ! Neither do these heaters 😏
David McLuckie has just posted a video of running a diesel heater as the heat source for a tumble-dryer! Plans for future videos include changing the drier's motor to be 12volts, and then including a new control board which manages starting and running the diesel heater, the tumbling, heat input, exhaust moisture content, and then closing down!
Robert , were you a teacher or lecturer at some point in your life? the way you explain how things work is fantastic . you remind me of the way my late Father explained things as a physics and chemistry teacher he loved the practical side of teaching . I remember well that he always came home from work to build something or work on the house or car he was always fixing something up, it seems to be a lost talent these days where many people are stuck in the cycle of going to work coming home and going to the pub and then it all starts again the next morning there seems to be a lot less people building kitchens, rebuilding the car engine until 10pm at night in the garage, building Radio control models, flying kites at the weekend, fishing , sailing, building stuff, so many skills seem to be lost by so many people in the interest of paying the mortguage and the bills and doing little else, glad to see your keeping things alive. This has been extensively looked at by David Mcluckie on you tube using new veg oil and after about 10 hours run time it causes extreme build up of carbon deposits in the burn chamber, its a bit annoying to have to strip the burner down almost every day to clean it, however he did find a balence of 50% petrol and 50% veg oil made a more tolerable mix that kept the chamber clean. have you toyed with the special settings menu by entering the code 1688 into the lcd screen? some of the Blue screens on the 2kw heaters use the code 9009. you can adjust the fan speed, glow plug setting and Hz settings but only if you are leaving the unit powered on if you turn it off it will return to its default settings. This is why the backlight on the lcd screen burns out, we turn ours off when we are not using it to preserve the life of the backlight. Im now running all 3 of mine on kerosene with 25ml of good quality 2 stroke oil to 25 litres of kerosene. they wont tolerate used veg oil unless you add at least 50% petrol, diesel, kerosene to the mix . Robert please be careful with carbon monoxide and running these things. if the special settings are changed they can produce carbon monoxide from the glow plug breather which leaks out of the rubber glow plug cover as it becomes distorted through heat damage this carbon monoxide gets into the hot air stream and into your living space which is why its important to seal the rubber glow plug cover with high temp rubber sealent, we acheived 33 parts per million not hugely high but probably not the best idea if granny falls asleep on the sofa all night long. we have been saving £40 a week in heating our home in the UKs 2 hardest cold snaps this winter we dont use our boiler for anything but heating water at the moment.. The heaters have saved us from going broke on gas prices this winter 2022-2023. I have 3 heaters now two 5kw and one 2kw. we dont run them all night long as it saves fuel and the house stays warm enough to sleep upstairs at night. its usually down to about 17 degrees C by 7.30 am by which time the diesel/kerosene heater goes back on to maintain a comfortablke 20 degrees C downstairs all day, its turned off again at tea time when cooking and put back on for about 5 hours in the late evening to about midnight. its more work than turning up the thermostat on the gas boiler but by eck it saves a lot of money and the bills are much less scarey than our next door neighbour who maintains their home at around 18 degrees C 24/7. they are sitting in the cold worrying about how to pay their heating bill now and Im trying to pursuade them the get a diesel heater, ive even offered to collect the fuel from the depot when I go to get my supply for the month ahead. it is not readily available in Northants as farmers have all moved to bio-fuels and comercial businesses are banned from using red diesel for heating their workplaces , so its a 50 mile journey down to oxford ton get fuel from an oil supplier that sells small quantities from a pump you can buy as little as 5 litres whereas the oil suppliers up here will only sell you a minimum of 2 x 205 litre drums per delivery and dont have pumps for seling smaller quantities. There were some all in one diesel heaters availabe on amazon with blue metal cases for a little over £100 Honhill diesel heaters so they are coming down in price. currently sold out, at this kind of price they shift very quickly indeed. but they need upgrading before use to make them safe, the fuel line and often the control LCDs and ecu needs replacing to something that works properly like the set you have on yours. watching lots of youtube videos helps a lot to make them safer. the last thing we need is an accident where someone uses one one sent out with the less safe green soft plastic fuel line which melts from exhaust heat, and that will end it for everyone. done properly these can be great heaters and as Ive said one 5kw heater will heat a whole house easily and cheaply.
If you can find one that is. Since the legislation on who can use it changed, most if not all around here (Northants) have stopped selling it. I can buy it in huge quantities locally, but that's not really that practical for the amount I consume.
I do just that. When i pay for my container of red diesel (gas oil) the person on the till produces a form to fill a few simple details in on and everything is fine. Customs can come and check up if they have any suspicions the red diesel is being used for illegitimate purposes.
@@howardosborne8647 I once had a car which had the ability to have a Webasto auxiliary heater fitted to warm the car up on a timer or provide additional heat when the engine's running. There was a 'how to fit' thread on a forum for the car, and one of the posts was regarding fitting a small fuel tank in the boot, just to run the heater off red diesel, apparently the taxman said this is also OK to do, so anyone running one of these to heat a motorhome should also be able to do the same, rather than use regular supertaxed diesel from the main tank.
Rob ran the biodiesel in my heater same as yours worked fine for a week then needed to clean it out black smoke. Stated , resolution buy a carbon monoxide meter and tune it adjusted mine to pump speed 1.5 fan 4900 max and it’s working fine, so the type of fuel will require specific adjustments , thanks 🙏
Hi Robert, I have one of those diesel heaters. I haven't experimented with any fuel recipes as yet, but run it on straight diesel. I use mine to heat my shed/workshop, which is approximately 17'x9' but I can divide it off in two when necessary. I can run the heater for about 10 to 12 hours on 1 litre diesel, which I consider to be very efficient and quite economical. So with your mix it should prove to be a very cheap form of heating.
First chance I get. I’m flying to the UK to have a pint with this guy. He seems to think the exact way I think. Literally the way he speaks in terms of mannerisms and sentence structure. Ideas I’ve thought of and I find this guy’s already thought of it and made it in a practical sense. When I explain these things to friends. I literally hear his voice except with a midwestern accent. I keep up very well. It’s hard to explain. But yeah I’m flying to the UK to have a pint with this guy.
Over several videos TH-camr *John McK 47* has done a *FULL* breakdown and analysis of these Chinese diesel heaters (fuel consumption, heat output, etc). It is very interesting.
Absolutely !! That guy really understands this little heater and what makes it tick. He has the skill to get over his knowledge and experience in a clear and informative way. If you are thinking of buying one of these, take a couple of hours to watch through his playlist of videos. He answered all the questions I had in my head, and a whole lot more besides.
Those new diesel heaters are amazing! I just want to mention that I heat my basement lab/workshop with a portable Kerosun Omni-105, 23,000 btu kerosene heater. I know this sounds like a really foolish and dangerous thing to do but I have been doing this for over twenty years without a problem. The windows and door are very leaky to the outside and I use a carbon monoxide/dioxide detector to monitor the basement air. I have also used it upstairs in the main house during a past winter 5 day power outage to keep warm and my water pipes from freezing. It also has a feature where as soon as it is tipped sideways, a spring retracts the burner wick to shut it down.
@@gavinlynas2833 oh i agree there 👍 the latest rush of instant experts on the subject on YT has certainly spread the word, usually the word is misspelled but hey, at least it's out there 👍
Hi Rob, I have the exact same model in my workshop, I just run it on red diesel available from some petrol stations, currently about £1 a litre. We also heat the house with oil, so when I get a delivery of this, I get an extra 25L for the Chinese heater and avoid some VAT, also currently about £1 a litre.
You can crank out more efficiency from those heaters if you put a long exhaust pipe on it. Before it's piped outside to vent, you can leech off A LOT of heat from the exhaust. Running the exhaust through a coil submerged in a bucket of water also boils the water very easily.
Unfortunately here in the USA kerosene and diesel are ridiculously expensive currently making it more expensive than using a propane heater . I tried using the same ratio and it worked out awesome BUT the next morning I fired it up and had blue smoke on startup which went away once I cranked it up and got it nice and hot . One thing I forgot to account for was the temperature of the oil being a factor . The shop I have it in was at around 12°c which would make colder and thicker for the pump to move . Lesson learned either preheat the fuel mixture or use a different ratio of oil to diesel . Also having the cap cracked open a little bit is a good idea since it can cause a vacuum lock situation and suck in the tank walls. Fortunately I was there to see it happening thereby avoiding the issues by releasing the pressure . Another thing to think about with these things is that it would be advisable to have a battery powering it or as a failsafe in case you lose power .Keep in mind the fact that the circuit board within the heater housing gets pretty warm but because of where it's at it gets the flow of air from the fan keeping it safe from melting .If all the sudden you lose power that board is toast . aside from that I really like this little heater .It has great potential for increasing the heat output via a heat exchanger hooked up in line with the exhaust pipe and then onwards to a radiator . BTW I really like your channel and the videos you do . They're always interesting, educational and upbeat which is something that's in short supply these days . Thanks for doing what you do ✌️☺️
the mechanical description you have of how there is a burn chamber and a separate air pipe, is how forced air gas powered furnaces work in the US. there is a chamber where the flame is separated from the ducted air via a heat exchanger. The only time you use household air is if the furnace is in the same space being heated, like in a basement mechanical room.
It's been interesting following along, Robert. Something like the Bullerjang combined with the heavy oil burning capabilities of the forever wick sounds like a pretty ideal appropriate/low tech/low maintenance heating solution with the advantage of not requiring electrical power. My spidey sense tells me you've already come to a similar conclusion.. so I'll look forward to the video.. 😁👍
Several youtubers have already done alternate fuel vids on these heaters. I saw one run on primarily used motor oil, where after 2 or 3 years it coked enough to stop operation. And as Rob says it was able to be cleaned and put back to service.
You missed the ones where they block after a few hours and cannot be cleaned cos the hidden screen and swirl chamber is blocked and you ni on need to destroy the burn chamber taking it appart 😏👍
Yeah, I've tried to run on various mixtures of used motor oil/diesel/gasoline. Unless you can find a way to adjust burn settings, it plugs up real quick. Mostly on the coldest days of the year, and what a PIA it is to clean it out then. I've taken mine apart so many times it's almost worn out. Kerosene alone will seize the pump.
@@livestock9722 some of the blue controllers allow you to set fan speed separate from pump speed 👍 not sure if others do 🤔 TBH only really played in depth with propper webasto or ebers and the blue controller Chinese ones 👍
@@livestock9722 Kerosene will not seize the pump. Myth that's has been circulating for several years. The majority of UK users run on Kero(28sec) as does every central heating pump.
I've been running these heaters for awhile alternative fuels normally need some adjustments in the fan settings and running on high generally reduces the coking up the small amount of water from the gelatin mixture should help keep it cleaner water injection would be best but it's not easy to do! I tried 50 percent motor oil 50 percent diesel took a month to be so full of carbon that it wouldn't run ! Fortunately they are easy to clean but you do need a tool to remove the glow plug and i haven't been having the best luck with the temperature sensor so buying an extra one isn't a bad idea.There's a Scottish youtuber David mcluckie that has tons of videos on these he is currently working on a version that self powers using peltier units ! I think david is far to brilliant to be a baker and should be working as an engineer somewhere! They even sell heater exchangers to also heat water!
You Should check if the Gelatine method helps to clarify used motor oil, maybe it’ll remove some of the additives and/or some of the soot from the oil to make it burn cleaner
Just to add that you can adjust the fuel/air ratio in the settings to allow for different fuel use, typically using an inexpensive fuel/air ratio meter to check you are supplying enough air (fan speed) for the fuel setting (pumps per sec or minute) to achieve a complete burn.
Great heat idea. Cheap heat - wood pellet camping gasifier stove with hollow baked bean can resting on top for that full burn - acts as a moving chimney.
I would like to add that you could make a sand Battery out of a metal bucket or metal garbage can and increase the heater's efficiency even further. Use Ceramic wool to insulate the bucket/garbage can and have a pipe go through the bottom and leave the top of the sand battery as exposed metal plate and use a fireplace fan on top as an indication that the battery is charged enough and circulate the heat.
The biggest way to improve the overall efficiency of these heaters is to run the exhaust pipe though a water heat exchanger and deliver this 'saved' heat into the room with a second radiator and small fan. You will need a smallish header tank and vent or the system could pressurise and blow, making for a very unpleasant experience for you. Admittedly a more complex set up than yours, but I think, a better recovery of wasted heat.
@@bigoldgrizzlybasically doing the same thing but it's safer with sand and takes slightly longer to get to temperature (because of more heat can be stored) and a 2 hour max burn has the potential for 6.5 hours radiant heat at half temperature in the garbage can configuration run both exhaust and vent through the battery. Water is good for immediate release for that day. Run a sand battery for a while and it will run for a lot longer. Water is a good option in the right environment.
@@daniellapain1576 fair comment. I absolutely see the points you are making. I must admit to bias in that I want to have a system to come on in the workshop [120m cubed] at 6 am and be up and comfortable in fairly short order after I start work at around 8. . There is plenty insulation and 'general mass' within in the shop to hold at least some degree of heat overnight. Rapid temp rise is my aim, once up to temp, maintaining it through the day should not be a problem. I can even switch off the diesel and rely on the woodstove for that.
Thanks for 1793 Robert. You explained it all so well and it's always funny seeing who comes into shot on your outside broadcasts and this time it was just legs. May you and yours have a very grand new year and all the best from the Quantocks in Somerset.
Rob - Big fan of those "cheap chinese" heaters as an emergency/backup heat source. I have a very similar unit for use if/when I lose heat during winter (to prevent pipes freezing & preserve life). Been thinking of getting a couple of non-all-in-one units for installation in my Diesel truck (in case of being stranded in winter) and my vintage VW (for real heat). As you likely know, these are clones of the German heaters (Espar & Webasto) that VW had as an option for the old bugs. 😁 Cheers!
Robert, How about a video on cleaning up old motor oil. For those who are diligent enough to change their own motor oil this could also be an alternate scourge of diesel, although not bio. If you added an amount of cooking oil then you could claim that it is hybrid.
Here's an idea. Add a Stirling engine that uses the heat produced in the combustion chamber and drives a fan to pump the air in the room through the device and back out again. This would be very useful in places where there is no electricity, like off-grid cabins ,and places that have frequent power failures, like Ukraine.
i got one of these before xmas for 94 quid its now pumping heat into my house keeping my entire house at 23oC i have a open plan layout and all the heat rises and makes everything toasty upstairs ....its saving me about £3 to £4 a day instead of having the gas central heating on
Nice as soon as I can afford it I will be warm 👍 I haven't had heat for a couple of years now I will look for a good one and save my money, then get it for next winter Thank you
hi rob ,we have one of these heaters .and just for reference we discovered the pulse pump was placed at a slight angle. .This caused the pump to fail as the piston needs to run inside the pulse pump vertical, as it relies on the fuel to lubricate.hence we adjusted the pump and lines and still ok 15 months later
You R on FIRE 🔥!! Connecting your amazing videos with a culminating video. I love that I can show your videos to my STEM/sustainable Permaculture style living class! Good food to good fuel to good living!! Thank you.
When you make a Cooper pipe winding around the exhaust or in the Air flow you could get a water flow without a pump. Our old Wood Burner could run without electrisity only with the flow through the warmer water going Up. You could make a similar thing with a Tank for warm water in RV or Tiny Home. The problem would be with too hot water. The simplest solution would be to make the winding detachable but then you have to be there the whole time or you can make two exhaust's and shut down the one with the winding at 85°C. The water Tank would also be a good reservoir for the heat at night.
Got one of these. not used it yet. Got it mainly for when caravanning in the Awning(put outside and run duct in). with things as they are, I might wait a bit before setting it up for that in case we need it for the house.
I fitted a cab heater (Eberspacher) in my workshop over 25 years ago before the cheap versions were available. Like so many other TH-camrs have done, it is not advisable to run them on a mains fed power supply unit, as in the event of a mains power cut the unit can’t go through the programmed (safe) shut down process of cooling the unit and purging the starting heater plug. A 12v battery and battery charger should be used to ensure correct shut down with the available battery power. If the battery voltage drops to 11.5 volts the unit will initiate the correct shutdown procedure automatically, turning off the fuel pump, running the fan to cool the heat exchanger via the heat sensor, re energising the glow plug briefly to ensure any residual fuel is purged from the chamber ready for a clean start up when the correct voltage is available.
I've run 90/10 diesel/used oil in my tractors and combine for a while with no issues. Put the same fuel mix in one of these heaters and you'll get acquainted with no heat and cleaning (which is a pain) on a regular basis.
These units usually have a calibration mode so you can fine tune the injections per second vs. the intake air fan speed (for high and low) which allows you to get the maximum heat output with the minimum fuel burned in their full range which is the sweet spot, apparently they come configured to burn more fuel than they need to so that they’ll work with all sorts of grades of fuel out of the box in the wild... which makes pretty good sense, but when you turn them to lower settings it is usually letting the air go too low (so they can be as quiet as advertised) and then you get a dirty burn because you can’t calibrate to a low enough fuel rate to match the fan speed without issues, so that minimum fan needs be raised and then the pump frequency adjusted so that it’s tuned... it can probably actually deal with quite a range of similar fuels, given their ability to calibrate like that.
Replacement pumps are so cheap and easy to change, I wonder if it would be cheaper just to run 'em till they wear out. if you can stand the ticking noise. I suspect running at max power for a few minutes before shutting down would help a bit with coking issues. Calibrating dosing and fan speed and comparing inlet and outlet temperatures along with CO output is the way to go. No two setups are likely to be the same and unless you can get a consistent alternative fuel 'blend' efficiency is likely to suffer.
Thanks. The exhaust gets really hot. I think the exhaust could be used to heat a sand battery or the heating coil in a hot water cylinder. I don't see why not!! That would make a good video...
I orderer some stainless steel fabric (thanks to a fine british genteleman's subtle suggestions) and am having a blast since it arrived. Even putting a sock of said fabric onto a contained candle gives off plenty of IR radiation - making the candle a proper hand warmer. I tested the fabric (i ordered 400-mesh) on various propane burners as well. I think that a gas camping burner would get a real boost in efficiency with an appropriately molded stainless steel sock ontop of the burner.
two options you can do to help keep burn chamber clean...... is before shutting down... turn it up to high Heat.... so once you got into the off cycle..... it will have better chance to combust everything.. so nothing left behind. Another option is to not only finish off things with the heater on HIGH heat...... is to also put in a manner to switch fuel sources..... make one the recomended diesel (or Kerosene) and the other your blended waste fuel. Then you would start the unit on the recomended diesel or Kero...... keep that fuel in use till the unit reaches operating temperature.... then switch to the blended waste fuel.. Plan ahead and 15min or so before you plan to shut it down...... switch back to diesel / Kerosene, put it on HIGH heat...... then 15min later turn it off / put it into the shut off cycle. Doing this will greatly lesson how often and/or aggressive you have to clean out the thing. Likely would lower how often you need to replace the Glow Plug and the Atomizer screen
When I was a mechanic we heated the shop with a diesel heater but what we did was mixed a50/50 mix of diesel and waste cooking oil and burned that because the oil alone was too hard to burn until heated up. By mixing it it made it burn easily and cut the cost of fuel in half.
I've got one of these pumping hot air in the cat flap, even with Diesel it costs about 30p an hour to run and heats the downstairs of my house, you do need a decent amperage 12V supply, at least 12amps for startup, after which doesnt draw much, and you can wreck the burner, if you can just unplug it. I cover mine with an old tarp, to keep the wet off it, and been using all winter, not had issues with damp or moisture, you can buy extension pipes on ebay and better exhausts to make it quieter, but is barely noticeable from inside if running outside, I posted videos of it too.
Now you need to make the same thing with a jstove mate. I really like the idea of running one of these through a window with an inlet and outlet port on a board
Well Robert ,I run 2of these heaters ,one heating a bedroom other the kitchen,for last four years, my fuel is 50 /50 diesel. W v o , mine run fine even stripped one down yesterday to check ,all .I had was a small bit of soot ,my w v o is pretty clean to start with, kept back 1litre ,am about to try your gelatine method .
I run one of those, & have put a digital readout CO monitor directly into the exhaust stream at around 500mm. On red diesel. Nothing! Thanks for this, I'll try it.
Some heater display panels have a code that you can put in to change pump speed and airflow. The code is 1688, tinker with this and you can basically burn most oil based substances.
Happy Christmas Robert, and this was a gift! I bought one of these diesel heaters after your review and run it on agri diesel, after watching your last video where you cleaned the used oil my first thought was if that could be used in the diesel heater. I didnt want to risk it as I dont know enough about the fuels but you have just carried out what was going through my mind and shown it possible! Thank you
Don't use vegetable oil!!! It has glycerin in it and that doesn't burn and eventually your entire burner chamber will be clogged like it did to mine even with a 50/50 mix cooking oil / diesel still failed, look for my videos if you don't believe me .
@@AndersonERockefeller thanks. that's interesting as from what I understand in making bio diesel you remove the glycerine as a by product. so therefore it wouldn't end up in the burn chamber. wonder what about a higher ratio of kerosene like 70/30 to used veg oil?
Good vid 👍 All i would add is the pumps are prone to seizing if not lubricated enough, kero and cooking oil don't have enough lubricant in them and pumps are well known to seize, personally i add 2stroke oil or ATF to prevent this 😏 There are hidden screens and swirl chambers at the bottom of the burn chamber that block as well as the inner fins you can see so cleaning out is not allways as easy as it looks 👍
Happy New tinkering Robert. Having just acquire one of these. I instantly looked at what else i could use it for. Rather than me make a hash of it. How about seeing if you could convert it to a water heater. Then I'll report back on the 2.0 version.
I am keeping my methanol fire for the living room as I developed it alot and it actually looks attractive and rustic now But I am doing the upstairs with ducting and these heaters next year. The rate of burn being controllable being a massive point for me.
I have been running my diesel heater with E85(85℅ethanol+15℅gasoline). Its cheap in France, about 60 cent per litter. And its running fine, even in low setting 1.6Hz. And for the 12v power i used a old computer PSU(300w). Works fine.
Resembles the paraffin heater I have in my boat. The heat exchanger is cast aluminium. The guy who serviced it said it will last forever. The only problem is, it's hard to find fuel for it these days.
I have the same heater. I also have the same HHO mini torch machine you've featured before. I thought why not combine them today and run the HHO to the intake of the diesel heater to improve the combustion and heat output (especially at the lower injection settings) and it seems to be working great! Probably burning much cleaner I would hypothesize.
That seems like doing that it could run on just about anything hopefully it doesn't get hot enough to melt anything hho burns hot! what kind of liters per minute is your hho putting out? I'm thinking of trying something like this maybe when boondocking like running a little propane then I could use vegetable oil with just a little deisel to thin it out as electricity from batteries is precious!
@@patrickday4206 I'm making just under 1 LPM. I noticed that running the heater on injection setting one was making about the same heat as setting 4 or 5 before the HHO.
@@mikewalsh511 how many watts does it consume 240v or 120v I was thinking about buying one I wanted one back in 2000 when the only one I could find was the browns gas guy that charged an Arm and a leg!
No follow up, Rob? It seems these heaters are only getting more popular and many users will benefit hugely from this if it works in the long run - thanks so much for your bio diesel vid. I suppose that coking up the innards is the main concern (and whether that's easily serviceable) and I'm also wondering how the fragile dosing pump will hold up with the different viscosity and lubricity.
Brought the 5kw version and made a box with a vented flue through wall ,so the intake is warmed by the outlet vent ,keeps my house at 20c runs all day on 2.5l of diesel , only use my combi boiler for hot water now, might look into making my own fuel to make it even cheaper
I would suggest adding a heat exchanger to the exhaust, to pre warm the air getting sucked into it. As long as the exhaust temperature stays above 60°C you are fine with water/corrosion. Also pre heating the veggie fuel might help the burn/pump. Is the air for burning already separated from the air getting heated ? Or does it use "room air" and then sucks in cold air into the room/cab from outside. EDIT: just checked you other video: separated air, very good. I've already modified two "cheap" room air conditioners (for cooling only) with only one exhaust pipe to run separated air streams. one loop sucking in the warm outside air and taking away the heat from the compressor and blowing directly outside again, one loop running the room air getting cooled in a closed loop. This greatly increases the cooling, since there is no hot air from outside constantly sucked back into the room. ..and its only a few plastic parts and pipes, which if you buy a 2-loop version make a difference from 270 (one pipe) to 800bucks upwards for 2 pipe versions. One could think the industry made a deal on the price part to not underbid each other for material costs of probably 25 bucks in large quantities. ... when burning fuel only for heat i always get teary eyed, when thinking about using a old smart 3 cylinder diesel to turn this into electrical power and heat. (There are conversion kits for the cars, refurbished engine in exchange is available around 500 bucks)
Robert, could you use a thermocouple and read the exhaust temperature from the burner? What is the temperature of combustion in the burn chamber? Basically, I'm wondering what percentage of that heat is successfully transferred to the air when you operate it at various settings. Having the combustion intake air temperature, the combustion temperature, and the exhaust temperature, and the heating air intake and outlet temperatures would really help get a sense of what this devices is achieving.
@@ThinkingandTinkering Here's where my thoughts are going: If I remember correctly, steam locomotive engineers concluded that the best way to get heat from fire into water is to use "fire tubes" connecting a combustion chamber with the exhaust stack, with those tubes passing through a reservoir of water. Concurrently, there is this concept of a "thermal transformer" using a phase-changing heat transfer medium to take high temperature heat and spread it out to heat a much larger volume of something else at a lower temperature. Based on these principles, it would seem to me that the best way to convert heat from burning fuel oil to heated air is to send combustion gases from burning oil through fire tubes in a reservoir of water, and have the steam travel through another set of tubes with much larger surface area (such as a radiator) to condense, using that to heat the air. That way, the heat transfer is over a smaller temperature difference, which is more efficient and less entropic. That would seem to me to be much more efficient than the tiny but really high temp heating surface in the diesel heater.
I just watched a very interesting video where the person connected the exhaust to the bottom of an empty radiator and exhausted it out from the opposite top hole and out into the open to vent safely out of the room. The radiator obviously got hot, a hot air convector heater...a great idea but probably more useful passing through the primary coil in a vented hot water cylinder to indirectly heat your stored hot water.
Here's a question about these things that doesn't seem to have been tried by many channels: as these heaters put out hot air at over 120C, can we use it as an oven? A simple metal box, maybe?
I tried the same one to heat my office, it has enough capacity and doesn't use a lot diesel.. but my issue with it was that couldn't use it with a regular adapter needed a battery to support the starting of this heater..
I’m looking forward to a future investigation in 3-4 months to let us know if there’s any adverse effects from running it long term on your oil/paraffin mix as I’m just installing one in my garage !
I spent a long time living in a van with an eberspacher. It was an old vw diesel and I used to mix all of my fuel with vegetable oil. Even in the winter it worked well. It’s the electrical consumption that’s the issue. Very easy to make heat but where is the necessary energy coming from.
The tax treatment in the U.K. was changed in April 2022 to include biofuels used for heating. The good news is that you only need to register and account for fuel if you produce over 2,500 litres per year so small domestic users are exempt. Search - Biofuels and other fuel substitutes (Excise Notice 179e) from 1 April 2022
If you were to put some straight diesel in every so often, say about once every couple of months of burning or so, and burn that on full power for a day or two, do you think that might clean up the internal burn chamber, and save the job of having to strip and clean? Paul UK.
Jet A1 fuel is basically kerosene, aka a slightly lower quality paraffin. And ~£1 a litre if you can find someone to get some for you. I suspect it would work equally well as the 20% mix with used cooking oil. Would be nice to run one of those heaters for ~£1.50 an imperial gallon.
I'm curious as what you find long term. Since these units will plug up if ran on a vegetable oil mix with 50/50 diesel. I did it and it only ran for a few days before causing problems. I was using brand new vegetable oil when I tried it.
Good video, and I am sure this is a viable fuel for the UK climate, where I live in Canada even diesel fuel gels in extreme cold, your mixture would become a solid.
@WRXS - hence diesel fuel heaters were invented,and if we only looking at the heater fuel gelling easy.. run your exhaust gas directly in a box per say outside and have your tank inside that just first no wrecking my brain popped in,and also u can always use a copper or some metal tube like brake line coil it up a bit in the middle make sure it fits inside tge tank opening submerge,next.. one end of pipe tap in direct line with exhaust in the exhh pipe while other end just vent to athmos..if not enough exh gas caught and temp not arisen in coil modify opening to catch more gasses..your welcom.. easy to bark out without thinking at a honest helpful gesture to who CHOOSE to enjoy the advice..not mandatory for you ..grattitude for selfless free help is what should be shown,nNOT"smart" -SS comments wirhout some grey matter poweer to back it up with..now u just embarrassing yourself..hit the books itll change your mind to the better...god bless everyone ..and lets say a thank you from everyone to the kind gentleman posting wisdom..
@@MrEuroWolfie Great reply Wolfie, and since the heater is only used for winter camping in my converted cargo trailer, or bug out box, I will stick with the winter blend of 50% diesel and 50% odorless kerosene.
It works! Great stuff! These kind of heather's are also used in boats a lot but my idea would be to use the Fuel in the "old fashion way where you have a pan and a carburateur It's not so noisy and no electricity required and gives a pleasant heat
How would you use a carb 🤔 a carb requires air flow to suck the fuel out and mix it with the air so you'd need an air pump (otherwise known as an engine) to create the airflow, won't work with a pan 🤔
@@Dirt-Diggler its not a Car it's a oil stove where you have a special type of carburateur which drips Fuel in some kind of dish often with a pole in the middle for the Heat
It was always a good idea to take air from inside the house because it is damper and has CO2 from breathing, it therefore ventilates the house. The downside is possible fumes getting back into the house despite that we should have come up with a system to prevent this.
With standard biodeisel mixes being a cook of about 1/10 or 1/20 methanol to the rest oil(I think the heavier oils need more, lighter oils like most cooking oils would be less, I may have that backward), a small amount of base catalyst(potash lye or sodium lye) maybe an once per batch, Small HCl to drop the lye from the solution on completion, biodeisel is thinner that this on average, and due to the chemical reaction, most origination smells are destroyed. After you let the reaction occur with strong stirring for a while, you will know it is about done when the glycerin formed is about the volume of the methanol. This can be used as fuels for lamps as you have said as well, and after this has the salt in it, but there are ways to crash out the salt too. This seems to me to be cheaper than the paraffin, tho perhaps more tool and labor intensive, but that could cut your costs pretty well.
@@jasonmorello1374 I'm not sure how it works, but there are DIY methods to print enzymes and they don't seem too hard to get. In the middle of nowhere it isn't a viable method but in the first world it certainly is.
@@vitordelima I am not sure about "printing" enzymes, but I know Thought emporium channel has coverd some for his project to make yeast that would generate spider silk. I think the process would be similar, and take some specialized bio lab equipment and pre study. Mind you, If you are up for such a thing, go right ahead, but some times you need something a bit more within immediate reach.
@@jasonmorello1374 No, it isn't. It is immediately available for many enzymes and I'm almost sure they are cheap to buy already made, but you just want to nag.
It took three winters to clog my one up with soot , I only burn kero . The heat from the exhaust is a waste , I know some people who don't vent the exhaust at all , that has to be a couple of kW of heat gained , a radiator added to the exhaust before venting outside might be a idea 💡
Just awesome as always. I just want to put in my request for something that you previously theorized about, which is to say a wind powered sand battery heater. I am wondering if there is some configuration involving resistance heating and thermoelectric fans which could be viable. I am most curious about the specifics of how the electric load would be controlled for such an application. If you can’t get to this topic it’s fine. I will let you know if I end up (successfully) experimenting with this concept in some way.
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![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
Be carful Rob! You are single-handedly putting a wrench in the grand plan to freeze as many people as possible.
Great video brother!
TO DEATH!
There are other methods that don't rely on fuels such as concentrating solar heating, passive solar heating, solar evacuated tube collectors, wind powered electric heaters or low grade geothermal.
@@vitordelima absolutely. Some of which I am working on for myself. This year has been a huge shock to millions of people. They need cost effective heat without a large or difficult learning curve right now.
@@vitordelima most working class people don't have the money for that...
@@UNPROFOR1994 It's cheaper than most alternatives but it also triggers a lot of despicable people for obvious reasons.
I ran my Peugeot 306 for a number of years on vegoil. I included a heated fuel filter and heat exchanger to preheat the vegoil, also looped the injector return. Two, 3 port valves were used to select the fuel source and return route. So start on diesel until the engine hit over 70 degrees, then swop to vegoil. Swop back to diesel a few miles before turning off. I ran the vehicle for over 100,000 miles on this setup. Bosch injector pumps were always successful for vegoil but lucks CAV easy to break. The VW PD was also meant to be good.
One important thing with waste vegoil on cars, apart from filtering the crud, is removal of water from it, normally this was done by allowing several weeks for it to settle, so you end up with oil on top of the water. To check water content, just put it into a hot frying pan and check for spitting.
Thanks for your excellent channel, it provides me with a lot of entertainment.
In the UK "paraffin" refers to kerosene. In the rest of the world paraffin is another name for candle wax and kerosene means kerosene.
There is also a paraffin lamp oil and I believe that is a pretty standard name/label around the globe. And that is the product that Rob is referring to. Apparently it is more refined than kerosene and has less smell when burned, which makes it better for lamps.
Yes. I had to figure out what he meant. I didnt think wax would work...lol
@@justinw1765 In North America lamp oil is labelled "lamp oil" but we know it's kerosene. Nothing is labelled "paraffin" except candle wax or the wax used in food canning.
Thank you for clarification to us across the pond.
Ha ha ha ha that is so rich!! I seriously was preparing to try to mix literal wax paraffin with spent oil!! Good catch!!!!! Just in time 😁
Hi Robert.
Have been using one of these to heat my work shop for the last 4 years burning anything from agricultural diesels, domestic oil, and vegetable oil mixture, still working well, 23.2 degrees in here as I type. Cheers.
awesome mate - cheers
A few years ago I mounted one of the heater units along with a 5L fuel tank to a sheet of plywood in the shape of my companionway hatchboards. In the shoulder seasons, I use it instead of the hatchboards so that I've got a simple heating setup that takes no room in the summer - just put it in storage. It works brilliantly, and I run it primarily off biodiesel or 50:50 gasoline/waste cooking oil. I've also sourced contaminated diesel (normally mixed with water) that I'm able to clean up and run.
I've experimented with a ton of other waste streams, and have had to clean mine a couple times over the years. Once I'd coked the swirling mixer so badly I couldn't clean it, and was happy to discover replacement burn chambers with gaskets are like $20. I bought a bunch of them, and now if they're too dirty to be saved, don't waste any time. I've saved probably thousands of dollars of fuel at this point.
These things are fantastic!
$20 to replace - wow - that's like nothing! that is cool to know - cheers mate
Well my search show nothing like that for sale! what country are you sourcing this from? And whats it really called?
Rob .. I have a friend who hooked up the exhaust and ran it through some pipes before exiting his room .. which allowed him to recover some of the exhaust heat .. making it even more efficient.
Im loving same diesel heater -40C and keeps my 12×24foot shop 15C on lowest setting. Amazing heater but I do find lots of heat is wasted through the exhaust could definitely do heat recovery radiator with the exhaust system
Yes I've done it, it works great.
I had to build a thermostat to cycle mine in and off because it was cooking me out a guy builds one it's called the afterburner!
I might have mentioned this before but when I was stationed in Germany in the RAF around 1979 ish I used to refuel a similar device, a bus heater, separate burn chamber and separate airflow going into the building and run off the mains electric. If memory serves me right a Jerry cans worth of diesel would run it all day.
They were invented in Germany in the 40s/50s 👍
From Canada: I just want to thank you for experimenting with safe ventilation. It’s really the difference between efficiency; and life and death.
cheers mate
Hi Rob I use to run my Massey Ferguson 35 (1958) on 50/50 used veg oil and green diesel, she was only used in the summer for topping and hauling in turf. She run great, I rebuilt the top side a few years ago. I was delighted to find the head and all was very clean, I cant get the used veg oil anymore as the bloke sells it, but I buy a few litres now and then and put it in my jeep, wife's jeep and MF35. Both jeeps passed the N.C.T. test engines running clean. I love your show, keep up the great work, God bless you.
great info mate - thanks for posting
Every cafe is going to be deluged with requests for their used cooking oil now. It'll be 50p a litre by Feb ! 🙂 Please consider doing the video on how the heater looks inside after a while as most people are hanging out to see that. I've seen them run on used untreated motor oil and of course they soot up big time. Also I have heard that if you give them a good 15 minute blast on the highest setting before shutting them down that will make a huge difference in the anount of maintenance required.
cheers mate and yes I will
Hi Robert, I don't recommend using an adapter without having a battery backup. There is a mandatory cooldown cycle. If the power goes out during a running cycle, it could damage the unit. Cheers from Ottawa.
Dead right
I run mine in my work shed
I have a 12v deep cycle battery and a trickle charger.
The battery is there for two reasons
supply the start up current needed for the glow plug. Once it starts the trickle charger (like the alternator in a car) recharges the battery and supplies the running current for the fan, etc
The second and more important reason for this simple power supply is so that if there were an outage, the battery will keep things going for hours.
Then you can properly shut it off and cool it down
nice suggestion - cheers
It won't damage it, it merely floods the chamber which makes a mess and difficult restarting.
@@melissasmess2773 Hundreds of videos of people who used these things, and all say the same thing. The fan is necessary for the cooldown cycle. I own 5 of these heaters. 2 failed after a few months. I didn't know they were easy to fix, so I just bought replacement units. At least I have a lot of spare parts. The oldest one I have is the one that works best.
A well constructed system could easily cook down garbage plastic into jet fuel which then powers the heating to cook down the plastic. Only a tiny flame needed a it is functionally simmering...not even.
Happy Solstice season!
Ran one of those at a summer house I built in Finland, the exhaust was vented into a stratification thermal mass unit. very very amazing results.
Its a good idea Rob.
But recently I've learnt that burners with nozzles and fuel pump (assuming there is one in your fancy unit for atomizing purposes) specified for diesel usage can wear our fairly quickly when used with such novel fuels. These days in India, some variants of LDO (Light Oil Diesel) are being made with similar mixing recipes and as such industrial diesel burners, even with good quality fuel pump, face pump failure issues. So burner manufacturers have now started using relatively tougher fuel pumps (for instance 1/2 HP 100 litres per minutes capacity) for using these mixed fuels.
Just thought if your heater utilizes a fuel pump, this issue may needs addressing suitably.
As always, your videos are great! Thanks.
Use a bosh injector pump from an old rover diesel, filter the used veg oil with £5 ebay filters, no parafin needed. Used to run it in my old rover 400.
I am running one of these currently in my van to keep my bowling balls warm. And so I feel comfortable when it's time to drive home from work. Less than $0.50 a day and I can keep them stored in there and not have to take them in the house every day. I bowl nearly every day of the week in 3 different towns. The cost to operate the heater will become a fraction of that when I insulate the van. Currently it's all sheet metal.
These heaters have gone up by 50% in the last month. There were many listed on eBay, but now not so many.
Price is likely to drop back in the spring/summer months. Just at the moment, fear of heating costs and production problems in China has left a lot of empty shelves. I reckon a fair proportion of sold units will end up on the secondhand market next year. Won't bother me and my woodstoves ;
I payed £90 for mine and now it's double the amount.
Basically ripping people off. Here in Australia where its coming into summer they are freely available at the previous price . They just know that everyone is looking to keep their heating costs down in the UK so are making hay before the sun shines again. If it wasn't for the outrageous costs of freight between Australia and the UK you could buy them easily from here. I can buy a book on EBay UK for 5 quid and pay twenty five in postage !
yep - all heaters have gone up in price mate
Apparently Trading Standards have impounded several hundred of these CDH at Felixstowe docks, I'm lead to believe the problem is with the Chinglish instructions rather than the heaters themselves ?
I've successfully run an old mercedes on used veg oil, the single easiest way to clean it is to let gravity do all the work, it's called settling. Over time all the crud sinks to the bottom simply pull the clearer oil off at the top. A heater like this might run on straight used veg oil so possibly no need for any filtering or additives like paraffin etc ?
Check out "dieselpumpUK" for a look inside the ruined fuel pump from a 606 that's been run on non refined cooking oil, most diesel engines will run on it but they do not last ! Neither do these heaters 😏
ill av a look. @@Dirt-Diggler have you seen the vegoilcar website ? well worth a look
David McLuckie has just posted a video of running a diesel heater as the heat source for a tumble-dryer! Plans for future videos include changing the drier's motor to be 12volts, and then including a new control board which manages starting and running the diesel heater, the tumbling, heat input, exhaust moisture content, and then closing down!
Robert , were you a teacher or lecturer at some point in your life? the way you explain how things work is fantastic .
you remind me of the way my late Father explained things as a physics and chemistry teacher he loved the practical side of teaching . I remember well that he always came home from work to build something or work on the house or car he was always fixing something up, it seems to be a lost talent these days where many people are stuck in the cycle of going to work coming home and going to the pub and then it all starts again the next morning there seems to be a lot less people building kitchens, rebuilding the car engine until 10pm at night in the garage, building Radio control models, flying kites at the weekend, fishing , sailing, building stuff, so many skills seem to be lost by so many people in the interest of paying the mortguage and the bills and doing little else, glad to see your keeping things alive.
This has been extensively looked at by David Mcluckie on you tube using new veg oil and after about 10 hours run time it causes extreme build up of carbon deposits in the burn chamber, its a bit annoying to have to strip the burner down almost every day to clean it, however he did find a balence of 50% petrol and 50% veg oil made a more tolerable mix that kept the chamber clean. have you toyed with the special settings menu by entering the code 1688 into the lcd screen? some of the Blue screens on the 2kw heaters use the code 9009. you can adjust the fan speed, glow plug setting and Hz settings but only if you are leaving the unit powered on if you turn it off it will return to its default settings. This is why the backlight on the lcd screen burns out, we turn ours off when we are not using it to preserve the life of the backlight.
Im now running all 3 of mine on kerosene with 25ml of good quality 2 stroke oil to 25 litres of kerosene. they wont tolerate used veg oil unless you add at least 50% petrol, diesel, kerosene to the mix .
Robert please be careful with carbon monoxide and running these things.
if the special settings are changed they can produce carbon monoxide from the glow plug breather which leaks out of the rubber glow plug cover as it becomes distorted through heat damage this carbon monoxide gets into the hot air stream and into your living space which is why its important to seal the rubber glow plug cover with high temp rubber sealent, we acheived 33 parts per million not hugely high but probably not the best idea if granny falls asleep on the sofa all night long.
we have been saving £40 a week in heating our home in the UKs 2 hardest cold snaps this winter we dont use our boiler for anything but heating water at the moment.. The heaters have saved us from going broke on gas prices this winter 2022-2023. I have 3 heaters now two 5kw and one 2kw. we dont run them all night long as it saves fuel and the house stays warm enough to sleep upstairs at night. its usually down to about 17 degrees C by 7.30 am by which time the diesel/kerosene heater goes back on to maintain a comfortablke 20 degrees C downstairs all day, its turned off again at tea time when cooking and put back on for about 5 hours in the late evening to about midnight.
its more work than turning up the thermostat on the gas boiler but by eck it saves a lot of money and the bills are much less scarey than our next door neighbour who maintains their home at around 18 degrees C 24/7.
they are sitting in the cold worrying about how to pay their heating bill now and Im trying to pursuade them the get a diesel heater, ive even offered to collect the fuel from the depot when I go to get my supply for the month ahead.
it is not readily available in Northants as farmers have all moved to bio-fuels and comercial businesses are banned from using red diesel for heating their workplaces , so its a 50 mile journey down to oxford ton get fuel from an oil supplier that sells small quantities from a pump you can buy as little as 5 litres whereas the oil suppliers up here will only sell you a minimum of 2 x 205 litre drums per delivery and dont have pumps for seling smaller quantities.
There were some all in one diesel heaters availabe on amazon with blue metal cases for a little over £100 Honhill diesel heaters so they are coming down in price. currently sold out, at this kind of price they shift very quickly indeed.
but they need upgrading before use to make them safe, the fuel line and often the control LCDs and ecu needs replacing to something that works properly like the set you have on yours. watching lots of youtube videos helps a lot to make them safer. the last thing we need is an accident where someone uses one one sent out with the less safe
green soft plastic fuel line which melts from exhaust heat, and that will end it for everyone. done properly these can be great heaters and as Ive said one 5kw heater will heat a whole house easily and cheaply.
As a heater, you can legally run these things on red diesel, you just need to fill a form in at the petrol station to buy it.
If you can find one that is. Since the legislation on who can use it changed, most if not all around here (Northants) have stopped selling it. I can buy it in huge quantities locally, but that's not really that practical for the amount I consume.
Heating oil works it's basicly red diesel but normally someone has to buy like 500 gallons!
I do just that. When i pay for my container of red diesel (gas oil) the person on the till produces a form to fill a few simple details in on and everything is fine. Customs can come and check up if they have any suspicions the red diesel is being used for illegitimate purposes.
@@howardosborne8647 I once had a car which had the ability to have a Webasto auxiliary heater fitted to warm the car up on a timer or provide additional heat when the engine's running. There was a 'how to fit' thread on a forum for the car, and one of the posts was regarding fitting a small fuel tank in the boot, just to run the heater off red diesel, apparently the taxman said this is also OK to do, so anyone running one of these to heat a motorhome should also be able to do the same, rather than use regular supertaxed diesel from the main tank.
Kerosene is half the price
Rob ran the biodiesel in my heater same as yours worked fine for a week then needed to clean it out black smoke. Stated , resolution buy a carbon monoxide meter and tune it adjusted mine to pump speed 1.5 fan 4900 max and it’s working fine, so the type of fuel will require specific adjustments , thanks 🙏
Hi Robert, I have one of those diesel heaters. I haven't experimented with any fuel recipes as yet, but run it on straight diesel.
I use mine to heat my shed/workshop, which is approximately 17'x9' but I can divide it off in two when necessary.
I can run the heater for about 10 to 12 hours on 1 litre diesel, which I consider to be very efficient and quite economical. So with your mix it should prove to be a very cheap form of heating.
First chance I get. I’m flying to the UK to have a pint with this guy. He seems to think the exact way I think. Literally the way he speaks in terms of mannerisms and sentence structure. Ideas I’ve thought of and I find this guy’s already thought of it and made it in a practical sense. When I explain these things to friends. I literally hear his voice except with a midwestern accent. I keep up very well. It’s hard to explain. But yeah I’m flying to the UK to have a pint with this guy.
Remember that video when it came out, it's such a great idea plus his location was something else being full blown winter & he's nice & toasty inside.
Over several videos TH-camr *John McK 47* has done a *FULL* breakdown and analysis of these Chinese diesel heaters (fuel consumption, heat output, etc). It is very interesting.
Very very interesting vids from him also David mclukie does great vids on them 👍
Absolutely !! That guy really understands this little heater and what makes it tick. He has the skill to get over his knowledge and experience in a clear and informative way. If you are thinking of buying one of these, take a couple of hours to watch through his playlist of videos. He answered all the questions I had in my head, and a whole lot more besides.
Those new diesel heaters are amazing! I just want to mention that I heat my basement lab/workshop with a portable Kerosun Omni-105, 23,000 btu kerosene heater. I know this sounds like a really foolish and dangerous thing to do but I have been doing this for over twenty years without a problem. The windows and door are very leaky to the outside and I use a carbon monoxide/dioxide detector to monitor the basement air. I have also used it upstairs in the main house during a past winter 5 day power outage to keep warm and my water pipes from freezing. It also has a feature where as soon as it is tipped sideways, a spring retracts the burner wick to shut it down.
Hardly new, that style of heater has been around for over 50 years snd the Chinese have been selling cheap copys for the last 10 or so 👍
@@Dirt-Diggler It's new to me!
Maybe not new but certainly not commonly heard about, until recently with vanlife stuff and green energy etc.
@@gavinlynas2833 oh i agree there 👍 the latest rush of instant experts on the subject on YT has certainly spread the word, usually the word is misspelled but hey, at least it's out there 👍
Hi Rob, I have the exact same model in my workshop, I just run it on red diesel available from some petrol stations, currently about £1 a litre. We also heat the house with oil, so when I get a delivery of this, I get an extra 25L for the Chinese heater and avoid some VAT, also currently about £1 a litre.
nice mate
You can crank out more efficiency from those heaters if you put a long exhaust pipe on it. Before it's piped outside to vent, you can leech off A LOT of heat from the exhaust. Running the exhaust through a coil submerged in a bucket of water also boils the water very easily.
Unfortunately here in the USA kerosene and diesel are ridiculously expensive currently making it more expensive than using a propane heater .
I tried using the same ratio and it worked out awesome BUT the next morning I fired it up and had blue smoke on startup which went away once I cranked it up and got it nice and hot .
One thing I forgot to account for was the temperature of the oil being a factor . The shop I have it in was at around 12°c which would make colder and thicker for the pump to move .
Lesson learned either preheat the fuel mixture or use a different ratio of oil to diesel .
Also having the cap cracked open a little bit is a good idea since it can cause a vacuum lock situation and suck in the tank walls.
Fortunately I was there to see it happening thereby avoiding the issues by releasing the pressure .
Another thing to think about with these things is that it would be advisable to have a battery powering it or as a failsafe in case you lose power .Keep in mind the fact that the circuit board within the heater housing gets pretty warm but because of where it's at it gets the flow of air from the fan keeping it safe from melting .If all the sudden you lose power that board is toast . aside from that I really like this little heater .It has great potential for increasing the heat output via a heat exchanger hooked up in line with the exhaust pipe and then onwards to a radiator .
BTW I really like your channel and the videos you do . They're always interesting, educational and upbeat which is something that's in short supply these days .
Thanks for doing what you do ✌️☺️
the mechanical description you have of how there is a burn chamber and a separate air pipe, is how forced air gas powered furnaces work in the US. there is a chamber where the flame is separated from the ducted air via a heat exchanger. The only time you use household air is if the furnace is in the same space being heated, like in a basement mechanical room.
cheers mate
It's been interesting following along, Robert. Something like the Bullerjang combined with the heavy oil burning capabilities of the forever wick sounds like a pretty ideal appropriate/low tech/low maintenance heating solution with the advantage of not requiring electrical power. My spidey sense tells me you've already come to a similar conclusion.. so I'll look forward to the video.. 😁👍
lol - I am an open book lol
requires 12 Volt DC supply that can handle the startup current draw of around 5 Amps, which reduces when the heater warms up.
Several youtubers have already done alternate fuel vids on these heaters. I saw one run on primarily used motor oil, where after 2 or 3 years it coked enough to stop operation. And as Rob says it was able to be cleaned and put back to service.
You missed the ones where they block after a few hours and cannot be cleaned cos the hidden screen and swirl chamber is blocked and you ni on need to destroy the burn chamber taking it appart 😏👍
Don't forget the rubber seals, they are damaged by veg oil.
Yeah, I've tried to run on various mixtures of used motor oil/diesel/gasoline. Unless you can find a way to adjust burn settings, it plugs up real quick. Mostly on the coldest days of the year, and what a PIA it is to clean it out then. I've taken mine apart so many times it's almost worn out. Kerosene alone will seize the pump.
@@livestock9722 some of the blue controllers allow you to set fan speed separate from pump speed 👍 not sure if others do 🤔 TBH only really played in depth with propper webasto or ebers and the blue controller Chinese ones 👍
@@livestock9722 Kerosene will not seize the pump. Myth that's has been circulating for several years. The majority of UK users run on Kero(28sec) as does every central heating pump.
I've been running these heaters for awhile alternative fuels normally need some adjustments in the fan settings and running on high generally reduces the coking up the small amount of water from the gelatin mixture should help keep it cleaner water injection would be best but it's not easy to do! I tried 50 percent motor oil 50 percent diesel took a month to be so full of carbon that it wouldn't run ! Fortunately they are easy to clean but you do need a tool to remove the glow plug and i haven't been having the best luck with the temperature sensor so buying an extra one isn't a bad idea.There's a Scottish youtuber David mcluckie that has tons of videos on these he is currently working on a version that self powers using peltier units ! I think david is far to brilliant to be a baker and should be working as an engineer somewhere! They even sell heater exchangers to also heat water!
You Should check if the Gelatine method helps to clarify used motor oil, maybe it’ll remove some of the additives and/or some of the soot from the oil to make it burn cleaner
Just to add that you can adjust the fuel/air ratio in the settings to allow for different fuel use, typically using an inexpensive fuel/air ratio meter to check you are supplying enough air (fan speed) for the fuel setting (pumps per sec or minute) to achieve a complete burn.
Great heat idea. Cheap heat - wood pellet camping gasifier stove with hollow baked bean can resting on top for that full burn - acts as a moving chimney.
I would like to add that you could make a sand Battery out of a metal bucket or metal garbage can and increase the heater's efficiency even further. Use Ceramic wool to insulate the bucket/garbage can and have a pipe go through the bottom and leave the top of the sand battery as exposed metal plate and use a fireplace fan on top as an indication that the battery is charged enough and circulate the heat.
The biggest way to improve the overall efficiency of these heaters is to run the exhaust pipe though a water heat exchanger and deliver this 'saved' heat into the room with a second radiator and small fan. You will need a smallish header tank and vent or the system could pressurise and blow, making for a very unpleasant experience for you. Admittedly a more complex set up than yours, but I think, a better recovery of wasted heat.
@@bigoldgrizzlybasically doing the same thing but it's safer with sand and takes slightly longer to get to temperature (because of more heat can be stored) and a 2 hour max burn has the potential for 6.5 hours radiant heat at half temperature in the garbage can configuration run both exhaust and vent through the battery. Water is good for immediate release for that day. Run a sand battery for a while and it will run for a lot longer. Water is a good option in the right environment.
@@daniellapain1576 fair comment. I absolutely see the points you are making. I must admit to bias in that I want to have a system to come on in the workshop [120m cubed] at 6 am and be up and comfortable in fairly short order after I start work at around 8. . There is plenty insulation and 'general mass' within in the shop to hold at least some degree of heat overnight. Rapid temp rise is my aim, once up to temp, maintaining it through the day should not be a problem. I can even switch off the diesel and rely on the woodstove for that.
cheers mate
Thanks for 1793 Robert. You explained it all so well and it's always funny seeing who comes into shot on your outside broadcasts and this time it was just legs.
May you and yours have a very grand new year and all the best from the Quantocks in Somerset.
Rob -
Big fan of those "cheap chinese" heaters as an emergency/backup heat source. I have a very similar unit for use if/when I lose heat during winter (to prevent pipes freezing & preserve life).
Been thinking of getting a couple of non-all-in-one units for installation in my Diesel truck (in case of being stranded in winter) and my vintage VW (for real heat).
As you likely know, these are clones of the German heaters (Espar & Webasto) that VW had as an option for the old bugs. 😁
Cheers!
I think that's what they are good for mate
Robert, How about a video on cleaning up old motor oil. For those who are diligent enough to change their own motor oil this could also be an alternate scourge of diesel, although not bio. If you added an amount of cooking oil then you could claim that it is hybrid.
Here's an idea. Add a Stirling engine that uses the heat produced in the combustion chamber and drives a fan to pump the air in the room through the device and back out again. This would be very useful in places where there is no electricity, like off-grid cabins ,and places that have frequent power failures, like Ukraine.
Look up peltier units they can produce electricity to power fans from heat!
i got one of these before xmas for 94 quid its now pumping heat into my house keeping my entire house at 23oC i have a open plan layout and all the heat rises and makes everything toasty upstairs ....its saving me about £3 to £4 a day instead of having the gas central heating on
Nice as soon as I can afford it I will be warm 👍 I haven't had heat for a couple of years now I will look for a good one and save my money, then get it for next winter
Thank you
Sounds good mate
hi rob ,we have one of these heaters .and just for reference we discovered the pulse pump was placed at a slight angle. .This caused the pump to fail as the piston needs to run inside the pulse pump vertical, as it relies on the fuel to lubricate.hence we adjusted the pump and lines and still ok 15 months later
this one has a diaphragm pump mate - I guess it changes from model to model
Correct, the piston wears on the bottom side. My unit doesn't have enough room to mount it properly, 😡
You R on FIRE 🔥!! Connecting your amazing videos with a culminating video. I love that I can show your videos to my STEM/sustainable Permaculture style living class! Good food to good fuel to good living!! Thank you.
oh wow - cheers mate I am honoured to know you do that - thank you so much
When you make a Cooper pipe winding around the exhaust or in the Air flow you could get a water flow without a pump. Our old Wood Burner could run without electrisity only with the flow through the warmer water going Up. You could make a similar thing with a Tank for warm water in RV or Tiny Home. The problem would be with too hot water. The simplest solution would be to make the winding detachable but then you have to be there the whole time or you can make two exhaust's and shut down the one with the winding at 85°C. The water Tank would also be a good reservoir for the heat at night.
nice suggestion mate cheers
Got one of these. not used it yet. Got it mainly for when caravanning in the Awning(put outside and run duct in). with things as they are, I might wait a bit before setting it up for that in case we need it for the house.
good plan
I fitted a cab heater (Eberspacher) in my workshop over 25 years ago before the cheap versions were available. Like so many other TH-camrs have done, it is not advisable to run them on a mains fed power supply unit, as in the event of a mains power cut the unit can’t go through the programmed (safe) shut down process of cooling the unit and purging the starting heater plug. A 12v battery and battery charger should be used to ensure correct shut down with the available battery power. If the battery voltage drops to 11.5 volts the unit will initiate the correct shutdown procedure automatically, turning off the fuel pump, running the fan to cool the heat exchanger via the heat sensor, re energising the glow plug briefly to ensure any residual fuel is purged from the chamber ready for a clean start up when the correct voltage is available.
cheers mate
Great! Just what I wanted to know. Got my heater, got my 50L of cooking oil, just need some gelatine and parafin.
Parafin is Kerosene
nice
I've run 90/10 diesel/used oil in my tractors and combine for a while with no issues. Put the same fuel mix in one of these heaters and you'll get acquainted with no heat and cleaning (which is a pain) on a regular basis.
what kind of used oil and did you clean the oil first?
These units usually have a calibration mode so you can fine tune the injections per second vs. the intake air fan speed (for high and low) which allows you to get the maximum heat output with the minimum fuel burned in their full range which is the sweet spot, apparently they come configured to burn more fuel than they need to so that they’ll work with all sorts of grades of fuel out of the box in the wild... which makes pretty good sense, but when you turn them to lower settings it is usually letting the air go too low (so they can be as quiet as advertised) and then you get a dirty burn because you can’t calibrate to a low enough fuel rate to match the fan speed without issues, so that minimum fan needs be raised and then the pump frequency adjusted so that it’s tuned... it can probably actually deal with quite a range of similar fuels, given their ability to calibrate like that.
Replacement pumps are so cheap and easy to change, I wonder if it would be cheaper just to run 'em till they wear out. if you can stand the ticking noise.
I suspect running at max power for a few minutes before shutting down would help a bit with coking issues. Calibrating dosing and fan speed and comparing inlet and outlet temperatures along with CO output is the way to go. No two setups are likely to be the same and unless you can get a consistent alternative fuel 'blend' efficiency is likely to suffer.
I must look into that - cheers mate
Thanks. The exhaust gets really hot. I think the exhaust could be used to heat a sand battery or the heating coil in a hot water cylinder. I don't see why not!! That would make a good video...
I orderer some stainless steel fabric (thanks to a fine british genteleman's subtle suggestions) and am having a blast since it arrived. Even putting a sock of said fabric onto a contained candle gives off plenty of IR radiation - making the candle a proper hand warmer.
I tested the fabric (i ordered 400-mesh) on various propane burners as well. I think that a gas camping burner would get a real boost in efficiency with an appropriately molded stainless steel sock ontop of the burner.
nice - great work mate - thanks for sharing
There is a pin to get into the settings. A guy did a great breakdown of it. Especially for when your using different fuels.
cheers mate
two options you can do to help keep burn chamber clean...... is before shutting down... turn it up to high Heat.... so once you got into the off cycle..... it will have better chance to combust everything.. so nothing left behind.
Another option is to not only finish off things with the heater on HIGH heat...... is to also put in a manner to switch fuel sources..... make one the recomended diesel (or Kerosene) and the other your blended waste fuel. Then you would start the unit on the recomended diesel or Kero...... keep that fuel in use till the unit reaches operating temperature.... then switch to the blended waste fuel.. Plan ahead and 15min or so before you plan to shut it down...... switch back to diesel / Kerosene, put it on HIGH heat...... then 15min later turn it off / put it into the shut off cycle. Doing this will greatly lesson how often and/or aggressive you have to clean out the thing. Likely would lower how often you need to replace the Glow Plug and the Atomizer screen
cheers mate
When I was a mechanic we heated the shop with a diesel heater but what we did was mixed a50/50 mix of diesel and waste cooking oil and burned that because the oil alone was too hard to burn until heated up. By mixing it it made it burn easily and cut the cost of fuel in half.
cheers mate
even at full diesel prices these heaters are amazing fuel sippers
yes - I was amazed at how little it used
I've got one of these pumping hot air in the cat flap, even with Diesel it costs about 30p an hour to run and heats the downstairs of my house, you do need a decent amperage 12V supply, at least 12amps for startup, after which doesnt draw much, and you can wreck the burner, if you can just unplug it. I cover mine with an old tarp, to keep the wet off it, and been using all winter, not had issues with damp or moisture, you can buy extension pipes on ebay and better exhausts to make it quieter, but is barely noticeable from inside if running outside, I posted videos of it too.
There is a connection for wood burners called Recon that fits on the flue and uses the hot waste gasses .Good video
Now you need to make the same thing with a jstove mate.
I really like the idea of running one of these through a window with an inlet and outlet port on a board
it's a good idea mate and to be honest you already have all the principles already to do it
Well Robert ,I run 2of these heaters ,one heating a bedroom other the kitchen,for last four years, my fuel is 50 /50 diesel. W v o , mine run fine even stripped one down yesterday to check ,all .I had was a small bit of soot ,my w v o is pretty clean to start with, kept back 1litre ,am about to try your gelatine method .
I run one of those, & have put a digital readout CO monitor directly into the exhaust stream at around 500mm. On red diesel. Nothing! Thanks for this, I'll try it.
Some heater display panels have a code that you can put in to change pump speed and airflow. The code is 1688, tinker with this and you can basically burn most oil based substances.
cheers mate
Happy Christmas Robert, and this was a gift! I bought one of these diesel heaters after your review and run it on agri diesel, after watching your last video where you cleaned the used oil my first thought was if that could be used in the diesel heater. I didnt want to risk it as I dont know enough about the fuels but you have just carried out what was going through my mind and shown it possible! Thank you
Don't use vegetable oil!!! It has glycerin in it and that doesn't burn and eventually your entire burner chamber will be clogged like it did to mine even with a 50/50 mix cooking oil / diesel still failed, look for my videos if you don't believe me .
@@AndersonERockefeller thanks. that's interesting as from what I understand in making bio diesel you remove the glycerine as a by product. so therefore it wouldn't end up in the burn chamber. wonder what about a higher ratio of kerosene like 70/30 to used veg oil?
Good vid 👍
All i would add is the pumps are prone to seizing if not lubricated enough, kero and cooking oil don't have enough lubricant in them and pumps are well known to seize, personally i add 2stroke oil or ATF to prevent this 😏
There are hidden screens and swirl chambers at the bottom of the burn chamber that block as well as the inner fins you can see so cleaning out is not allways as easy as it looks 👍
They can run on kero for years . They are the same as used on a Petrol heater. I know you have seen a Y-Tuber .
mine is a diaphragm pump
@@ThinkingandTinkering is it not the loud clacky solenoid pump 🤔 never come across one with anything other than the usual solenoid dose pump 🤔
Happy New tinkering Robert. Having just acquire one of these. I instantly looked at what else i could use it for. Rather than me make a hash of it. How about seeing if you could convert it to a water heater. Then I'll report back on the 2.0 version.
Uv been inspirational for many people aswell for future generations. Thank you for the years ov hard work an great information video's
I am keeping my methanol fire for the living room as I developed it alot and it actually looks attractive and rustic now But I am doing the upstairs with ducting and these heaters next year. The rate of burn being controllable being a massive point for me.
good plan mate thanks for sharing
I have been running my diesel heater with E85(85℅ethanol+15℅gasoline). Its cheap in France, about 60 cent per litter. And its running fine, even in low setting 1.6Hz. And for the 12v power i used a old computer PSU(300w). Works fine.
nice
Resembles the paraffin heater I have in my boat. The heat exchanger is cast aluminium. The guy who serviced it said it will last forever. The only problem is, it's hard to find fuel for it these days.
I have a gas caravan heater that works to exactly the same heat exchange system... only difference is the fuel and thus the running cost
I have the same heater. I also have the same HHO mini torch machine you've featured before. I thought why not combine them today and run the HHO to the intake of the diesel heater to improve the combustion and heat output (especially at the lower injection settings) and it seems to be working great! Probably burning much cleaner I would hypothesize.
oh - that is interesting - thank you for sharing
That seems like doing that it could run on just about anything hopefully it doesn't get hot enough to melt anything hho burns hot! what kind of liters per minute is your hho putting out? I'm thinking of trying something like this maybe when boondocking like running a little propane then I could use vegetable oil with just a little deisel to thin it out as electricity from batteries is precious!
@@patrickday4206 I'm making just under 1 LPM. I noticed that running the heater on injection setting one was making about the same heat as setting 4 or 5 before the HHO.
@@mikewalsh511 wow that is a vast improvement!
@@mikewalsh511 how many watts does it consume 240v or 120v I was thinking about buying one I wanted one back in 2000 when the only one I could find was the browns gas guy that charged an Arm and a leg!
No follow up, Rob? It seems these heaters are only getting more popular and many users will benefit hugely from this if it works in the long run - thanks so much for your bio diesel vid. I suppose that coking up the innards is the main concern (and whether that's easily serviceable) and I'm also wondering how the fragile dosing pump will hold up with the different viscosity and lubricity.
Brought the 5kw version and made a box with a vented flue through wall ,so the intake is warmed by the outlet vent ,keeps my house at 20c runs all day on 2.5l of diesel , only use my combi boiler for hot water now, might look into making my own fuel to make it even cheaper
Thanks Robert for another fantastic breakdown God bless ya and keep up the great work 😇👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏❤
I would suggest adding a heat exchanger to the exhaust, to pre warm the air getting sucked into it.
As long as the exhaust temperature stays above 60°C you are fine with water/corrosion.
Also pre heating the veggie fuel might help the burn/pump.
Is the air for burning already separated from the air getting heated ? Or does it use "room air" and then sucks in cold air into the room/cab from outside.
EDIT: just checked you other video: separated air, very good.
I've already modified two "cheap" room air conditioners (for cooling only) with only one exhaust pipe to run separated air streams.
one loop sucking in the warm outside air and taking away the heat from the compressor and blowing directly outside again,
one loop running the room air getting cooled in a closed loop.
This greatly increases the cooling, since there is no hot air from outside constantly sucked back into the room.
..and its only a few plastic parts and pipes, which if you buy a 2-loop version make a difference from 270 (one pipe) to 800bucks upwards for 2 pipe versions.
One could think the industry made a deal on the price part to not underbid each other for material costs of probably 25 bucks in large quantities.
... when burning fuel only for heat i always get teary eyed, when thinking about using a old smart 3 cylinder diesel to turn this into electrical power and heat.
(There are conversion kits for the cars, refurbished engine in exchange is available around 500 bucks)
Robert, could you use a thermocouple and read the exhaust temperature from the burner? What is the temperature of combustion in the burn chamber?
Basically, I'm wondering what percentage of that heat is successfully transferred to the air when you operate it at various settings. Having the combustion intake air temperature, the combustion temperature, and the exhaust temperature, and the heating air intake and outlet temperatures would really help get a sense of what this devices is achieving.
true enough mate - I will look into it cheers
@@ThinkingandTinkering Here's where my thoughts are going: If I remember correctly, steam locomotive engineers concluded that the best way to get heat from fire into water is to use "fire tubes" connecting a combustion chamber with the exhaust stack, with those tubes passing through a reservoir of water. Concurrently, there is this concept of a "thermal transformer" using a phase-changing heat transfer medium to take high temperature heat and spread it out to heat a much larger volume of something else at a lower temperature. Based on these principles, it would seem to me that the best way to convert heat from burning fuel oil to heated air is to send combustion gases from burning oil through fire tubes in a reservoir of water, and have the steam travel through another set of tubes with much larger surface area (such as a radiator) to condense, using that to heat the air. That way, the heat transfer is over a smaller temperature difference, which is more efficient and less entropic.
That would seem to me to be much more efficient than the tiny but really high temp heating surface in the diesel heater.
I just watched a very interesting video where the person connected the exhaust to the bottom of an empty radiator and exhausted it out from the opposite top hole and out into the open to vent safely out of the room. The radiator obviously got hot, a hot air convector heater...a great idea but probably more useful passing through the primary coil in a vented hot water cylinder to indirectly heat your stored hot water.
Great heaters. I've run one for years in my static.
Here's a question about these things that doesn't seem to have been tried by many channels: as these heaters put out hot air at over 120C, can we use it as an oven? A simple metal box, maybe?
It would be fascinating to see you convert carpet into bio diesel!😎
indeed?
Lol I never thought about that there's an awful lot of carpet and padding that gets thrown away!
I tried the same one to heat my office, it has enough capacity and doesn't use a lot diesel.. but my issue with it was that couldn't use it with a regular adapter needed a battery to support the starting of this heater..
I’m looking forward to a future investigation in 3-4 months to let us know if there’s any adverse effects from running it long term on your oil/paraffin mix as I’m just installing one in my garage !
I spent a long time living in a van with an eberspacher. It was an old vw diesel and I used to mix all of my fuel with vegetable oil. Even in the winter it worked well.
It’s the electrical consumption that’s the issue. Very easy to make heat but where is the necessary energy coming from.
The tax treatment in the U.K. was changed in April 2022 to include biofuels used for heating. The good news is that you only need to register and account for fuel if you produce over 2,500 litres per year so small domestic users are exempt. Search - Biofuels and other fuel substitutes (Excise Notice 179e) from 1 April 2022
If you were to put some straight diesel in every so often, say about once every couple of months of burning or so, and burn that on full power for a day or two, do you think that might clean up the internal burn chamber, and save the job of having to strip and clean? Paul UK.
There are many wood stoves with the same principle: a place for the wood to burn and go out but channels around it to blow air through as it heats up
cheers mate
It will run on anything oil-based. Also the used cooking-oil straight up. You might need to clean it more often though.
Jet A1 fuel is basically kerosene, aka a slightly lower quality paraffin. And ~£1 a litre if you can find someone to get some for you. I suspect it would work equally well as the 20% mix with used cooking oil. Would be nice to run one of those heaters for ~£1.50 an imperial gallon.
I'm curious as what you find long term. Since these units will plug up if ran on a vegetable oil mix with 50/50 diesel. I did it and it only ran for a few days before causing problems. I was using brand new vegetable oil when I tried it.
Good video, and I am sure this is a viable fuel for the UK climate, where I live in Canada even diesel fuel gels in extreme cold, your mixture would become a solid.
@WRXS - hence diesel fuel heaters were invented,and if we only looking at the heater fuel gelling easy.. run your exhaust gas directly in a box per say outside and have your tank inside that just first no wrecking my brain popped in,and also u can always use a copper or some metal tube like brake line coil it up a bit in the middle make sure it fits inside tge tank opening submerge,next.. one end of pipe tap in direct line with exhaust in the exhh pipe while other end just vent to athmos..if not enough exh gas caught and temp not arisen in coil modify opening to catch more gasses..your welcom.. easy to bark out without thinking at a honest helpful gesture to who CHOOSE to enjoy the advice..not mandatory for you ..grattitude for selfless free help is what should be shown,nNOT"smart" -SS comments wirhout some grey matter poweer to back it up with..now u just embarrassing yourself..hit the books itll change your mind to the better...god bless everyone ..and lets say a thank you from everyone to the kind gentleman posting wisdom..
@@MrEuroWolfie Great reply Wolfie, and since the heater is only used for winter camping in my converted cargo trailer, or bug out box, I will stick with the winter blend of 50% diesel and 50% odorless kerosene.
It works! Great stuff!
These kind of heather's are also used in boats a lot but my idea would be to use the Fuel in the "old fashion way where you have a pan and a carburateur
It's not so noisy and no electricity required and gives a pleasant heat
How would you use a carb 🤔 a carb requires air flow to suck the fuel out and mix it with the air so you'd need an air pump (otherwise known as an engine) to create the airflow, won't work with a pan 🤔
@@Dirt-Diggler its not a Car it's a oil stove where you have a special type of carburateur which drips Fuel in some kind of dish often with a pole in the middle for the Heat
cheers mate
It was always a good idea to take air from inside the house because it is damper and has CO2 from breathing, it therefore ventilates the house. The downside is possible fumes getting back into the house despite that we should have come up with a system to prevent this.
Do I overhear it? I would love to hear some details about the clarification with gelatin.
With standard biodeisel mixes being a cook of about 1/10 or 1/20 methanol to the rest oil(I think the heavier oils need more, lighter oils like most cooking oils would be less, I may have that backward), a small amount of base catalyst(potash lye or sodium lye) maybe an once per batch, Small HCl to drop the lye from the solution on completion, biodeisel is thinner that this on average, and due to the chemical reaction, most origination smells are destroyed. After you let the reaction occur with strong stirring for a while, you will know it is about done when the glycerin formed is about the volume of the methanol. This can be used as fuels for lamps as you have said as well, and after this has the salt in it, but there are ways to crash out the salt too. This seems to me to be cheaper than the paraffin, tho perhaps more tool and labor intensive, but that could cut your costs pretty well.
There are other methods based on enzymes and probably many more.
@@vitordelima True enough, but most of those enzyme products are not available off the self everywhere, which methanol and lye are.
@@jasonmorello1374 I'm not sure how it works, but there are DIY methods to print enzymes and they don't seem too hard to get. In the middle of nowhere it isn't a viable method but in the first world it certainly is.
@@vitordelima I am not sure about "printing" enzymes, but I know Thought emporium channel has coverd some for his project to make yeast that would generate spider silk. I think the process would be similar, and take some specialized bio lab equipment and pre study. Mind you, If you are up for such a thing, go right ahead, but some times you need something a bit more within immediate reach.
@@jasonmorello1374 No, it isn't. It is immediately available for many enzymes and I'm almost sure they are cheap to buy already made, but you just want to nag.
It took three winters to clog my one up with soot , I only burn kero . The heat from the exhaust is a waste , I know some people who don't vent the exhaust at all , that has to be a couple of kW of heat gained , a radiator added to the exhaust before venting outside might be a idea 💡
Just awesome as always. I just want to put in my request for something that you previously theorized about, which is to say a wind powered sand battery heater. I am wondering if there is some configuration involving resistance heating and thermoelectric fans which could be viable. I am most curious about the specifics of how the electric load would be controlled for such an application. If you can’t get to this topic it’s fine. I will let you know if I end up (successfully) experimenting with this concept in some way.
I will have a look at it - but I would also be very interested to see what you do too
Merry Christmas Robert and family and thanks for the excellent video insights :)
Would love to see the results of the chamber in a few months 👍🏼👍🏼